Ana Teresa Farias started working with children at age 17 when she became a Sunday School teacher, which has led to a career in speaking up for people—and encouraging them to speak up for themselves.
What drew Farias to the Sunday School was the children she taught and their curiosity. A few years later, after working in retail, she got a job in an after school-program. That led to work in the program’s infant-toddler room.
“I fell in love with the infant toddler group, and I asked to stay with them,” Farias recalls. “It’s great how children learn so quickly, and how they appreciate the little things that you do.”
And there’s the joy in seeing children grow.
“It’s funny, because last week, I saw a post from a family with a daughter who was two years old, and every time she came into the classroom, she would give me a hug. So I was looking at this post and there that little girl was: she was celebrating her 18th birthday, and I couldn’t believe it. I just remember her when she was two.”
Farias went on to work as child care director for a church in Framingham, Mass., and she branched out offering professional development programs to early educators. In 2016, she was hired to be a coordinator by Child Development and Education, an organization that supports family child care programs. Farias, who is from Brazil, worked with Portuguese- and Spanish-speaking educators.
Today, Farias is a training coordinator at UMass Boston’s Early Education Leaders Institute, and she’s a member of the fourth cohort of Strategies for Children’s Advocacy Network.
Farias says a key benefit of the Advocacy Network is connecting to other early educators and sharing ideas. A key lesson for her is realizing that there are exciting opportunities for “the community of Brazilian educators to be more involved and engaged. More of us could be on The 9:30 Call. We could have more meetings to support each other, because so often when we get together it’s just for training programs.”
Farias likes to tell early educators that they can watch videos translated into Portuguese of Amy Kershaw, commissioner of the Department of Early Education and Care (EEC), on The 9:30 Call in Portuguese YouTube playlist.
“I get a lot of questions from educators about what’s going on. That’s why it’s so important for educators to be able to hear directly from the commissioner.
“I also tell educators about the elected officials on The 9:30 Call, because a lot of people don’t know what’s going on policywise or who makes decisions, or how they can help with these decisions, or where they can get information about EEC Board meetings.
“I tell them where they can get information, and I tell them that they need to know who their elected officials are and how they can help. If elected officials don’t hear directly from early educators they aren’t going to pay as much attention. I say, Listen, if you guys want me to bring something up, I will do it. But then when they ask who’s behind me? Like, you guys need to step up. Otherwise, people will say, ‘Oh, it’s just that annoying lady.’ ”
For her Advocacy Network project, Farias set a strong example by speaking at a meeting of EEC’s Board about the financial challenges early educators running family child care programs face because the rate they are paid drops when a child turns two.
“People always say the rate is higher for infants because infants require more work. But when a child is turning two, they are potty training, so it’s easy to blow your budget on toilet paper and/or wipes,” Farias explains.
“And the thing is that early educators don’t receive proper business management training. They know when they sign up with the state to accept vouchers that the daily rate is going to decrease. But when it happens they don’t have the training to respond. That’s when people struggle because their rent didn’t decrease, and they’re still paying for electricity and water, and they’re still buying materials.
“We need to provide educators with the proper training, so when the rate drops, they don’t have to think, Oh, let me get a part-time job to cover, or let me, I’m going to let go of my assistant, because now I can’t afford an assistant.”
“I think there should just be one rate.”
Earlier this month, Farias hosted an in-person meeting at the Framingham Public Library for Helping Hands Support Group, an social-media-based support group of Portuguese-speaking early educators. The event was a success, with a total of 23 Portuguese-speaking educators and family child care owners coming together to celebrate each other and share their stories.
What does Farias want policymakers to know about the field?
“That family child care is really important and unique because these educators have a cultural background that is so powerful and helpful to our communities.
“I used to work in a center, and I love that work. Centers are great. But a family child care offers a family environment, and children need that, too. Society can have both options. One isn’t more important than the other. They are both equally important.”
And it’s in family child care programs that people can find hope and support, an important resource especially in immigrant communities managing fears about deportations.
“People need someone who can lend a shoulder, someone they can count on.”